Things In Unusual Places #1: The Earthworm

I found an earthworm in my sink on Saturday morning just after breakfast. I didn't see it glide across the kitchen floor, this isn't where stuff from the garden or allotment gets washed and it seems an awfully long way for it to have climbed up the plumbing.

So, how on earth did it get there? And whilst we're at it, how do they get into my water butt on the allotment after it's been filled from the nearest standpipe?

Comments

  1. Matron12 May 2009 at 08:45

    Must have fallen off something you were holding over the sink? A mystery otherwise!

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP12 May 2009 at 08:50

    Not unless it was lurking there for several days Matron, so I'm declaring it a mystery! Any ideas on how they get into water butts which aren't supplied via rainwater runoff?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anna12 May 2009 at 08:59

    Mmmmmmm - a mystery indeed - looks like a slippery customer to me. Have you left the lid off the water butt for a while, giving aforesaid worm an opportunity to slide in ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP12 May 2009 at 09:06

    Anna - not unless they slip in when I'm refilling the water butt. I get them in the garden butt too, but figured they could have come down the rainwater downpipe if a bird dropped one on the roof or something. As for the sink and the allotment, I'm stumped.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CanadianGardenJoy12 May 2009 at 12:21

    Hello there VP !
    Now isn't that a mystery ? .. how on earth was it able to get there ?
    Gives you something to think about while laying in bed at night perplexed with life in general? LOL

    ReplyDelete
  6. our friend Ben12 May 2009 at 12:29

    Eeeeewwww, VP! I love earthworms, but I want them in my soil and earthworm composter, not in the sink! I'll bet that gave you a turn!

    ReplyDelete
  7. petoskystone12 May 2009 at 12:47

    maybe the cats had something to do with your surprise guest?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen12 May 2009 at 12:49

    I know, I know, my mind is just as firmly boggled as yours is. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nutty Gnome12 May 2009 at 18:07

    I've got NO idea about your earthworm mystery, but I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for the beautiful music done by your choir! I had it on in the background whilst I was sorting stuff on my desk and it made the whole morning so much more pleasant and calm. Wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aunt Debbi/kurts mom12 May 2009 at 18:40

    beamed there by the little green men in the spaceship?

    ReplyDelete
  11. easygardener12 May 2009 at 22:25

    Your worm must have super powers!
    I found a slug in the salad crisper this morning - obviously off allotment greens - despite being washed after picking. Yuk!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Juliet12 May 2009 at 22:46

    I found a vine weevil halfway up the kitchen wall, above the cooker, the other week. I'd far rather have earthworms in the sink ;)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Simon (FSC)13 May 2009 at 13:38

    Hello everyone - I enjoyed reading your blog, makes me very envious as I don't (yet) have a garden!

    I noticed you mentioned the OPAL Soils and Earthworms survey, which runs from March to May 2009. There are still some survey packs available, and we would be very interested to receive your results. You can e-mail us at opal@field-studies-council.org to order a survey pack - just let me know your address and I can pop a pack in the post to you. Or you can have a look at the results that have come in so far at www.OPALexplorenature.org.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Martyn Cox13 May 2009 at 19:27

    I've never found an earth worm in the sink, but regularly have to swat vine weevil beetles crawling up the kitchen wall. And I once lived in a house where the slugs had decided they prefered the scraps on the kitchen floor to the juicy leaves in the garden - actually there weren't any juicy leaves, it was a student house and the garden was, well, a bit of a mess - ie, full of brambles, crisp packets and the odd shopping trolley.

    ReplyDelete
  15. VP13 May 2009 at 20:13

    Joy - yes it's a mystery but luckily it's not keeping me awake at night. Plenty of other things do that so it doesn't get a look in!

    OFB - luckily I'm immune to these kinds of things giving me a turn - it's because I've spent so much time trawling through lots of glutinous mud for all sorts of creepy crawlies I suppose. So I looked at it with curiosity more than anything else.

    Petoskystone - hmm that's a possibility...

    Yolanda - I'm still pretty boggled too. And whilst I think it might be because of one of the reasons I've already given, or Petoskystone's, I'm still perplexed that I didn't spot it earlier.

    Nutty Gnome - I've e-mailed your comment to our choir master, who now thinks you're lovely

    Deb - I don't think so - apparently they were around Chippenham at New Year's though...

    EG - it's amazing that no matter how careful you are with washing produce, some wildlife always seems to get through!

    Juliet - I've found vine weevil here too :( though not in the house yet, thank goodness

    Simon - welcome and glad you like it here! Thanks for adding the info.

    Martyn - ahhhhhh, student accomodation dontcha just love it? We had slugs half way up the bathroom wall in ours, plus mildew in which the previous occupants had scrawled 'lovely people' :(

    ReplyDelete
  16. Lisa7 December 2014 at 09:19

    I just found an earthworm in my sink...I'd been gone all day and the house was closed up...at least I think it's an earthworm...may be a fat red worm...anyhow found you by googling around and just thought to let you know, you're not alone. Well maybe, we're not alone in this oddity. My daughter wouldn't let me go to bed until I fetched it out...it's now awaiting identification in a ziploc w/ a tsp of water for sustenance. The blessing in it is that I found your lovely blog...I'll be back, I can't say as much for our mystery worm visitors. I'm fixated on the parable in the incident as I believe God teaches me through all His creatures. Don't lose your wonder! All the best from California...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP7 December 2014 at 11:02

      Hi Lisa and welcome to Veg Plotting :) Even 5 years on, it's still a mystery as to how the earthworm got into my sink and now I find it's happenend elsewhere! Thank you for your kind remarks, they've made my day :D

      Delete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more